Mobile Marketer?s Mobile Women to Watch 2014 list honors smart women executives who are set to make a difference in mobile advertising, marketing, media and commerce in 2014.

As with their predecessors in years past, this cut of honorees shares the same qualities: dedication to craft, ambition, leadership potential and educator. They are also quite aware of their role-model status as mobile becomes a more welcoming and appealing career option for talented women.

?I want to make mobile experiences that customers love and be an innovator and leader in mobile retailing,? said Wendy Bergh, San Bruno, CA-based vice president of mobile and digital strategy at Walmart.

That sentiment is common to almost all the 25 women on the list representing brands, retailers, financial services firms, ad agencies and service providers. 

The fifth annual Mobile Women to Watch, this list includes executives from Walmart, Ford Motor Co., GE, Citi, InterContinental Hotels Group, 7-Eleven, GrubHub Seamless, OpenTable, Museum of Modern Art, Starcom, Digitas and AKQA.

Also honored this year are executives from ExactTarget, Blippar, Mobext, Kargo, Fiksu, Vibes, Syniverse, xAd, Ping Mobile, Aurnhammer, 5th Finger and Pivotal Labs.

These women know their place in history by associating with mobile at the ground-floor level.

?It?s a whole new platform and a whole new behavior we?re creating,? said Lisa Hu, vice president of business development at Blippar, New York.

Picking the 25 smartest women with potential was not easy. Mobile Marketer invited readers to send in their nominations. The Mobile Marketer team also had its own table of candidates.

Once the deadline expired, the Mobile Marketer team judged the nominees on their merits and whittled the list to those who showed the most promise to push the mobile envelope in 2014.

The list?s responses to questions confirm their choice. While the realities of an emerging medium are acknowledged, so is mobile?s place in the multichannel marketing and retail ecosystem.

?I live in the future every day,? said Tina Unterlaender, director of mobile at AKQA, New York.

MANY THANKS to Kristina Mayne for her art direction on this Classic Guide.

Thank you also to Chantal Tode, Lauren Johnson, Rebecca Borison and Jodie Solomon for their nominations and judging. All judging was based purely on merit and potential to make a difference.

This year also marks the beginning of a new annual companion conference called the Mobile Women to Watch Summit, scheduled in New York for Nov. 4. The roster of speakers includes senior executives from Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Co., Citi, Gilt Groupe, Macy?s, OpenTable and L?Oreal, as well as panelists from ad agencies, consultancies, publishers and service providers. 

Please read this guide cover to cover. These Mobile Women to Watch are set to distinguish themselves even further in 2014, no doubt realizing that mobile advertising, marketing, media and commerce?s ultimate job is to move product across category.

?I have proven that we can leverage mobile to sell cars,? said Trisha Habucke, digital marketing manager at Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, MI.